ALTHOUGH OR THOUGH BY K J ROLLINSON

I use the word ‘although’ in my books, but I have read books which use the word ‘though’ and thought to myself what is the difference. I referred to old-faithful ‘Mr Google’ to find out and here is what he came up with. I pass it on in case it is useful to anyone out there.

Examples
In these examples, ‘although’ and ‘though’ are the same:
Growth in Europe is maintaining momentum, although the risks related to peripheral economies have increased. [Globe and Mail]
Unlike the other comparisons, however, this one is apt, though perhaps not in a way Cantor intended. [Washington Post]
Although the birds are just a small part of his business, carefully raising the pheasants from delicate eggs to beautifully feathered birds is clearly a passion. [The Age]
Some grown unschoolers, though positive about it overall, admit they’ve at times longed to be just like the other kids … [National Post]
And in these examples, ‘though’ is not interchangeable with ‘although’:
This weekend, though, theaters were packed. [Los Angeles Times]
There was another twist to come, though, as Pavlyuchenkova defied her flagging fortunes to win three games in succession. [Independent]
In another part of Google there is the following definition: In terms of the differences between the two as a conjunction, “although” was originally more emphatic. However, today that difference is less pronounced. “Although” and “though” can be synonyms,but “although” can mean something more like “even though”.In that sense, it can still be used for additional emphasis.

‘Though’ is the conjunction of choice at the end of the sentence like, ‘He was seriously offended by his accusations, he didn’t talk back though*.’ If you use ‘although’ then you need to shift the sentence a bit by placing the said conjunction in the middle ‘He was seriously offended by his accusations, although he didn’t talk back.

In one Google explanation, it says use ‘Although’ at the start of a sentence – which I do. I think the use of ‘though’ at the end of the sentence marked*, is pretty obvious.

One of the definitions on Google gives ‘though’ as an adverb. Although, in my dictionary and Collins English Thesaurus, both words are given as conjunctions.